Bulldogs' Turman, Monarchs' Conekin earn regional titles

BROAD CREEK — Dixon’s Brent Turman and Northside’s Ivy Conekin emerged champions in their respective weight classes at the NCHSAA 1-A/2-A East Regional wrestling tournament held Friday and Saturday at Croatan High School.

Turman claimed the crown in the 160-pound weight class, escaping in a close championship match.

“It’s definitely a tough weight class,” said Dixon head coach Dal Tomlinson. “He beat Paul Crossman from Richlands in a two-point match. He did very well. He did what he had to do to win the match. He didn’t do anything silly and he won the match.”

Conekin earned the title in the 135-pound division, winning all four of his matches en route to his second straight state tournament qualification.

“I don’t think Ivy has ever looked as dominating as he did this weekend,” said Northside head coach John Verzosa.

Also for Dixon, Tripp Waller took second place in the 171-pound division. Freshman Joey Williams was third in the 112-pound class. Jeff Wise, who earned his 100th career win in the quarterfinals of consolation round, was third. Wise finished the weekend with 102 career wins.

Turman and Conekin, along with all top-four finishers, advance to the NCHSAA state championships next weekend at Lawrence Joel Stadium in Winston-Salem.

“I think we have a tough region,” Tomlinson said. “They should be ready for competition. Once you get there you will wrestle some good competition there.”

The Monarchs had three other competitors advance.

Jon McCullum was third at 130 pounds and Antonio Woodard was third at 140. Woodard, a three-time state qualifier, ended the regionals 5-1 while McCullum was 3-1. Chris Jones finished fourth at 285 for the Monarchs, who placed 11th out of 32 teams.

Swansboro’s Casey Collins and Scott White also advanced to the state championships. Collins went 3-1 to finish third in the heavyweight division and White was fourth at 171 after going 4-2.

“Scott sat out for six weeks with an injury so this was the first time we wrestled (since the injury),” said Pirates head coach Ben Reichert. “I knew conditioning would be a factor for him, but he wrestled smart and did what he had to do to advance.

“Casey wrestled with confidence … after his loss he rebounded with two pins.”

Croatan emerged as the Regional champion.

[] 3-A Regionals: At Greenville, White Oak had four wrestlers finish as state championship qualifiers after strong outings at the 3-A East Regionals at South Central High School.

Terrance Zaleski finished second in the 152-pound division and Tyler Marva was also second in the 160-pound class. Wesley Goldsmith-Sweeney was third in the 112-pound class and Eric Norvell was also third in the 215-pound division.

“It was a very competitive regional,” Bruno said. “Tyler wrestled higher seeds since he was fifth seed. Goldsmith knocked off a second seed to come out with third.

“We wrestled well Friday and wrestled well Saturday.”

Havelock came away with the Regional title, while West Brunswick finished second and C.B. Aycock wound up third.

Bruno said he’s going to continue to work with his wrestlers for Saturday’s meet against the top competition in the state.

“We are pretty excited,” Bruno said. “It will be a good week of practice. We are going to be drilling to prepare for the state. We are pretty excited about the tournament.”